Monocle Scent One: Hinoki (2008) {New Perfume}

As announced previously, Comme Des Garçons have started a movement of double-branding their perfumes by creating customized fragrances for celebrities and sometimes, alternative cultural institutions. This trend is mirroring the popularity of celebrity fragrances trend in the mass market without being exactly the same. Obviously the image references are going to be different to give coherence to the values of edginess, avant-garde, and cultural refinement that they represent.

Hinoki by Monocle Magazine is one of these projects. It was created by perfumer Antoine Maisondieu, who is also very much a part of the creative team at the counter-cultural perfume house Etat Libre d'Orange.....

Hinoki is named after a false cypress tree that is central to Japanese culture, known for its aromatherapeutic properties, it was used as part of the bathing ritual and to make the casket and funeral shrine of the Emperor. It diffuses a wonderful lemon-y scent. It is known in the US as Port Orford Cedar.

"Hinoki is a cedary, woody scent inspired by Japanese hot-spring baths and Scandinavian forests. Hinoki is available at selected Comme des Garçons stores and monocle.com for deliveries from mid February 2008."

The perfume retails for 55 £ on the Monocle site